William "Bill" Geeraer (K9IIK)

June 1st, 2005

I've known Bill since 1972 when I was a Novice. We used to have CW QSOs during my Novice days and I finally got to talk to him by voice when I received my Tech license in 1974. Always quick with a joke and always provided controversial input on any subject that was brought up. Most recently he liked to talk on 2m and 70cm simplex. Bill also liked to meet with his ham radio buddies and go out for breakfast at a local restaurant. Always in good spirits. We will miss you Bill. (picture info: Bill with his wife Cecillia)

This is shocking. I cannot believe it.
Bill(K9IIK) ,John (K9IJF) and I(W4/VU2VKU now W4VKU)
used to have regular morning skeds on HF
and EchoLink. When John passed away, it
was sad. I have been too busy lately and
have not been able to catch up with Bill
on Echolink. For the past few days, i kept
looking for him on Echolink every morning.
I have relocated to NC and wanted to convey
that piece of info to him.
How sad it is. Darn it. I wish i could talk
to his wife Nancy and express my heartfelt
condolences. Just don't have her Landline
number. Wow. Just can't believe it as yet.
if anyone has Nancy's landline #, please
email me at w4vku-at-yahoo-dot-com.
Bill, May your soul rest in peace.
Will miss ya.
Krish
VU2VKU
W4VKU

I just learned of Bill’s (K9IIK) passing yesterday (9/4/2005 three months since his death). I have not been active in amateur radio for almost two years but I have many fond memories of Bill. He was a local fixture in Chicago radio for over 48 years and it was sad to see that no one had a written a decent memorial for him on any of the ham sites . He deserves a greater tribute and appropriate recognition for all the lives he touched.
I had my first QSO with Bill early in 2001, several months after getting licensed. Following a few months of sporadic conversations we developed regular rag chews on 146.52. The topics were wide ranging and always entertaining. Bill started in amateur radio in 1957 at the age of 17. During that time Bill and a couple of his friends (including K9IJF – John) would stay up late having rag chews with their 1 watt home brew radios in Chicago, where they grew up. Apparently, either just prior to getting licensed or shortly after, Bill and his buddies was not operating according to “FCC guidelines” and a local FCC mobile unit was in his area – and according to Bill – trying to locate the source of his transmissions. I thought that was funny considering how the FCC operates in the 21st century.
In his late twenties Bill moonlighted as an ambulance driver – he recounted, to me, some of the terrible things he saw and the lack of training he had compared to today’s EMT’s. Early in his first marriage, while living in Streamwood during the 60’s, Bill wanted to become a police officer but he needed his wife’s signature on the application. She would not sign it. I think Bill regretted not having the opportunity to be a cop. He spoke about that incident several times over the time I knew him.
By late 2001 or early 2002 a small group of us were in regular and sometimes long rag chews. The topics sometimes got heated but were always a blast. Bill retired from UNOCAL in 1994 (the oil company that the Chinese want to buy) where he ran facilities maintenance. One of the funniest QSO’s I remember was a heated discussion between Bill and W9CL (Claude) over air conditioning.; There were arguing over the correct direction for ceiling fan operation to optimize room the cooling effect of room air condition. Man the argument must have went on for 45 minutes it was hilarious. Nothing was ever resolved but the passion in the conversation was something. And by the way neither of you were right nor wrong on that topic. Given that most rooms are non linear in surface area (furniture, windows, etc.), and sometimes dimension, chaos theory (non-linear mathematical equations) would have to be used to determine, for any given room, which what the wind should blow to achieve the optimal cooling effect. Boy those were fun discussions!
Another funny topic was Bill’s constant headache with his neighbors and his condo association over his out door antennas. According to his bylaws he was not allowed to have any structure on his balcony that was permanently affixed. Bill was a pretty creative guy so he mounted his antennas on one on his portable speaker tripods (Bill DJ’s and some might speaker tripods). By the letter of the law he was good (since the tripod affixed to nothing) and it irked the board. Bill prevailed on that one and I think it gave him great pleasure in doing so.
Bill’s wife worked during the day so he was, as he liked to call himself, “Mr. Mom”. One Christmas I gave him a police scanner, man he loved that thing. In the evening or weekends I was always filled in on the latest happening here in Elgin. He liked that radio because he said “it keeps me company during the day”. He especially liked the public woks guys. He though it was funny that they spent more time on the radio fighting with each other than fixing the streets or replacing street lamps.
One time after a visit to my house Bill purchased TS-2000- one of the many radios that now collect dust in my unused shack.. He liked my radio and really wanted one. I remember him figuring out how much he could get for his 706 to cover the Kenwood purchase and how he would justify the purchase to his wife (aren’t we men all alike). Bill was a techy guy and liked the latest toys. He was the first person I can remember to own a camera phone. Bill was also an accomplished photographer eventually purchasing a very high-end digital SLR and spending quite of bit time snapping beautiful photo’s around the area. Bill was also a wonderful musician producing many rock, blues and country cd’s. His ability to create and entire band and lay down the multi-tracks was amazing. He really knew recording studio techniques and how to make his synthesizer sound like any instrument. I wish I had some of those cd’s they were really good.
I have countless stories about Bill and the times we had, along with several other of the regulars we would QSO with. If you would like to know more please send me and email and I will be happy to share some of the funny and touching stories that we shared. I hope you are at peace Bill, and enjoying yourself, wherever you are.

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